A doctor claims he has cloned human embryos and transferred them to four women to give birth to the world’s first cloned babies.

Panayiotis Zavos said he has implanted 11 cloned embryos into the wombs of four women – including one British surrogate mother.

Animals have already been cloned but most experts are opposed to human cloning

The cloning – illegal in the UK – was filmed by a documentary maker.

None of the implants resulted in a pregnancy but Dr Zavos insisted the it was just the start.

He told the Daily Mail: “There is absolutely no way that is will not happen.

“If we intensify our efforts we can have a cloned baby withing a year or two but I don’t know whether we can intensify our efforts to that extent.”

American Dr Zavos, who runs fertility clinics in the US and Cyprus, has been widely shunned by the scientific community but he claims he has has over 100 inquiries from infertile couples desperate to have a baby.

Most experts believe techniques used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996 are still too dangerous to use on humans and there are huge ethical barriers to cloning humans.